Carnbee

Description of the parish in 1862

"Carnbee parish contains the villages of Arncroach,
Carnbee and Newton of Balcormie. It is bounded by Cameron, Denino,
Crail, Kilrenny, Anstruther wester, Pittenweem, St Monans and
Kilconquhar. The parish is about 4 miles square. The northern part of
the parish is moorland in character while the southern half is rich and
fertile. The parish has excellent depsoits of limestone, freestone and
coal, the latter being worked at Newton of Balcormie and Cassingray.
The parish church is in Carnbee while there is a Free Church in
Arncroach. With the exception of a few tradesmen, the inhabitants are
chiefly employed in rural labours or at the collieries. " edited from Westwood's
Directory for the counties of Fife & Kinross
published 1862.

A very good description is to be found in the relevant chapter
in History of the County of
Fife: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time by John
M Leighton,
published 1840, online at Google
Books.

The pre-1855 monumental inscriptions for Carnbee Churchyard
are listed in "Fifeshire Monumental Inscriptions
(pre-1855) vol. 1 South east parishes" by John Fowler
Mitchell & Sheila Mitchell, published by the Scottish Genealogy
Society. ISBN 0901061948

Lists of heads of households taken for the 1821 and 1831
censuses appear amongst the Old Parish Registers (413/4). They have
been transcribed and published by the Fife
Family History Society
in their
Publication 20.

The Parish Church (Established Church, Church of Scotland):

The original Old Parish Registers (of baptisms / births,
proclamations / marriages, and deaths / burials) of the Church of
Scotland, which cover the years up to 1854, are held in the National Records of Scotland in Edinburgh, and they can all be
consulted there at the National Records of Scotland. The baptisms / births, proclamations / marriages and deaths
/ burials indexes can be searched at the ScotlandsPeople
website.
Copies of the register entries may be purchased.

Parish reference number: 413

The Old Parish Registers (OPRs) span the following dates
(although there are gaps within
these ranges):

Copies of the registers on microfilm may be consulted in
some local libraries and at LDS
Family Search Centres around the world. The indexes to baptisms /
births and proclamations / marriages can also be searched on the LDS
Family Search
website or on the IGI on microfiche in local libraries.

Kirk Session records are held at the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library, with digital copies at the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh. Some Kirk Session material is to be found
in the OPR records
(413/1 and 413/3). Details of church records here.

Heritors' Records (HR82) are at the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh. Details of records here.

Other Churches :

Records for other churches are
held at the Special Collections Dept. of St Andrews University Library.

Westwood's ParochialDirectory for the Counties of
Fife and Kinross for 1862
and 1866
are online at Google Books. On the Records pages of
the Fife
Family History
Society
website there is a transcription of the 1862 edition.

Details of historic buildings and archaeological sites in this
parish held by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical
Monuments of Scotland, Edinburgh, are catalogued at ScotlandsPlaces.
In the results, click RCAHMS. Unfortunately, not all entries have
digital images.

The best collection of large scale local and estate
maps and plans is held by the National Records of Scotland, Edinburgh. The RCAHMS also has some plans. They
are catalogued on the ScotlandsPlaces
website. N.B. Only a few maps and plans are available as
digital images.

Andrew Campbell has produced Fife Deaths from
Newspapers 1822-1854 - a compilation of deaths recorded in
local newspapers. Copies of this index are held by the Fife libraries
and the Family History Societies.

Fife Deaths Abroad 1855-1900 - a
compilation of overseas deaths recorded in Fife newspapers - has been
produced by Andrew Campbell of Fife Family History Society. The Society
have re-published it in their Publications Series, 26.

The parish is included in Andrew Campbell's compilation of Fife
Shopkeepers and Traders 1820-1870 taken from newspapers and
directories. It is available in most Fife reference libraries, in the
libraries of the family history societies, and at the Manuscript
Department of the Special
Collections Department of St Andrews University Library. It
is also available as Fife Traders and Shopkeepers
on CD from Fife
Family
History Society.

Prior to 1824, wills, testaments & inventories of
residents of Carnbee may be found
in either the St Andrews Commissariot (CC20) or the Edinburgh
Commissariot (CC8) records.
From 1824, commissary business has been conducted by the Sheriff Court
of Fife at Cupar
(SC20).

"Statistical accounts" giving fascinating insights into the
local topography and history, social and economic conditions, and even
the daily lives of people, were written by the parish ministers in the
1790s and the 1840s. For more information see the main Fife pages